Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I am getting God-damned tired of hearing of police doing crap like this

and being defended by their agency. And idiot judges and prosecutors who don't do their damned job.

Exhibit A, from Chicago:At the center of the case was security video from Jesse's Short Stop Inn on Feb. 19, 2007, that showed the hulking officer throw Obrycka against a wall, then slam her to the floor, where he aimed a series of frenzied punches and kicks at her.

Abbate had walked behind the bar after she refused to serve him more alcohol. Obrycka, who is half Abbate's size, shouted at him, but he did not leave her work area. When she tried to push him out, the assault started, with other patrons looking on.Just an isolated incident, no big deal, beating up the female bartender was just an aberration, right?At the sentencing hearing, prosecutors presented a second, previously unreleased video that they said showed Abbate beating a man in the same Northwest Side bar six hours before he attacked Obrycka. It was one of two other fights they say he got into that day -- proof, they said, that he was a "brutal, dangerous" man. No charges were filed in the second taped attack because the victim, a patron, declined to press charges, prosecutors said.Here is the miserable excuse for a lawman walking out of the courthouseWhat did he get for these attacks? Probation.

Effing PROBATION. And he's suspended, but he's still a Chicago cop.

"I haven't worked anywhere. I'm afraid something else will happen," she told the Tribune. "If I ever go back to bartending, the owners would have to be there all the time. I'm not comfortable working by myself."

She says it's not quite rational to fear the police, but she can't help feeling anxious when she's out and about with her husband and child. She is afraid they'll get pulled over for something. Afraid the cops will recognize her. Afraid they'll be friends of Abbate's.Damn, I wonder why?"I have a fear of the police. I know they don't want to hurt me, but I have a fear," she said. "I can't explain it."

Obrycka hoped Abbate would do some time for his conviction, she said, but she wasn't pointing any fingers Tuesday. "I was disappointed that he didn't get a sentence to go to jail," she said. "But I can't criticize the judge."Yes, madam, you can. That jerk should be criticized, left, right and vertically.But Fleming, who found Abbate guilty of aggravated battery this month in a two-day bench trial, chose 2 years of probation instead of any jail time. He said the law requires that he consider a host of factors -- such as prior criminal history, severity of the injury to the victim and whether a stiff sentence would serve as a deterrent to others -- in deciding whether to send the officer to prison.

"If I believed sending Anthony Abbate to prison would stop people from getting drunk and hitting other people, I'd sentence him to the maximum," Fleming said. "But I don't believe that is the case."What about PUNISHMENT, you moron? Punishment for what he did? If a plain citizen had done that, they'd already be in jail, or prison. And you give this piece of crap probation...

And, of course you have the dirtbag's slimy lawyer speaking up:Hickey argued that his client had already been punished for his "act of unbelievable stupidity." "He went out and got himself so drunk that he got into this position and ruined his life," Hickey said. "Tony Abbate recognizes that. He's not a bad person; he did something bad."For which he should be in jail, you disgrace to the legal profession. ...In fact, his lawyer, Peter Hickey, continued blaming her for the incident during the sentencing hearing Tuesday.Oh, of COURSE it was her fault, right. You bastard.

And yes, I am blaming the damned Chicago Police Department in large part for this.The Chicago Police Department's handling of the case drew criticism because police first tried to charge Abbate with a misdemeanor before the video became public. Just weeks later, video of a second barroom beating involving off-duty officers at the Jefferson Tap and Grille emerged, heaping more outrage on a police department already under fire in the Special Operations Section scandal, in which officers allegedly kidnapped and robbed people in dozens of incidents over several years.

With allegations of cover-ups to protect accused officers in all three incidents, then-Supt. Philip Cline was forced into retirement by Mayor Richard Daley.And now, there's a hearing set to try to fire this clown. Let's hope they actually do.

Second City Cop has this in a post on this mess:And any civilians or media types looking to start shit, just about every single reader here deplored Abbate's actions and called for his firing. We also uncovered numerous instances where Abbate should have been fired before or never even hired. It was the political structure that permitted this aberration to occur, not the men and women who serve and protect honorably day in and day out.Sounds good. Except the 'political structure' includes officers who probably covered up for him before. Just about every time something like this comes out, it turns out the clown had a history of bad acts, all too often glossed over or covered up by other cops because 'he's one of us'. Unfortunately, I'll bet that's part of the 'political structure' that let this jerk keep wearing a badge. I may be wrong; I hope so.

Exhibit B, from Spokane:A Spokane police officer should stand trial on charges of violating the civil rights of mentally ill janitor Otto Zehm and lying about the confrontation that resulted in Zehm’s death, a grand jury has decided....Zehm died March 20, 2006, two days after he was beaten with a baton, shocked multiple times with a Taser and hogtied. The case sparked a cry for more citizen oversight of law enforcement....Police officials initially said Zehm attacked Thompson, but they recanted that claim months later when surveillance video clearly showed Zehm retreating, holding a 2-liter plastic soda bottle in front of his face while Thompson struck him with a baton....Thompson was the first to respond and found Zehm in the store. Surveillance video shows that Thompson immediately engaged Zehm from behind.

Thompson began striking Zehm with his police baton and shocked him with his Taser as Zehm held the soda bottle in front of his face. The struggle continued and eventually included six more officers who arrived to help Thompson restrain Zehm.

Zehm stopped breathing about three minutes after one of the officers obtained a plastic mask from a paramedic and placed it on Zehm’s face. The mask was never attached to the oxygen tank for which it was designed, according to police reports. At the time, Zehm was lying on his stomach while officers kept his ankles and wrists bound with nylon straps.

After Zehm stopped breathing, paramedics rushed him to Deaconess Medical Center. He never regained consciousness, and he died two days later.

On May 30, 2006, Medical Examiner Dr. Sally Aiken ruled that Zehm died as a result of homicide.From the sound of this, some other officers contributed, and at the least need a... hell, I don't know. This is just...

Og told me about him last night. I think it's the guy who kept commenting under Anonymous, got insulting and threw out various conspiracy crap. I enabled comment moderation, and it ticked him off something fierce.

E-mail me

at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling

This deprecation of individual freedom was objectionable to me. I am convinced now, as I was then, that man is an end because he is a child of God. Man is not made for the state; the state is made for man. To deprive man of freedom is to relegate him to the status of a thing, rather than elevate him to the status of a person. Man must never be treated as means to the end of the state; but always as an end within himself." Dr. M.L. King Jr.